Hajj Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
49 free Hajj trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Every year more than two million people converge on Mecca for the same five or six days, and this quiz walks through what they do and why. It covers the Hajj as one of the Five Pillars, the timing in Dhu'l-Hijja and why the date drifts, the white garments of ihram and what they forbid, the seven circuits of tawaf, the walk between Safa and Marwah, the vigil at Arafat, the night at Muzdalifah, the pebbles thrown at Mina, the sacrifice and Eid al-Adha, and the farewell tawaf. The history questions reach from Abraham, Hajar and Ishmael to Muhammad's Farewell Pilgrimage in 632, the medieval caravans and their commanders, the Qarmatians who stole the Black Stone, Mansa Musa's golden journey, Malcolm X in 1964, and the modern logistics of tents, terminals, quotas and apps. Easy questions suit anyone with a general knowledge of Islam; the harder tier asks about ramal, tarwiyah and the caliph who sent the first Egyptian kiswah. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the Hajj, the Kaaba, the Black Stone, Zamzam and the sites of the pilgrimage, and the supporting sentence is attached to each question. For the wider faith, try our Islam quiz, and for the city itself, our Mecca quiz.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many times in a lifetime is a Muslim who is able required to perform the Hajj?
Once
Once, and only for those with the health and money to go; a Muslim too old or ill to travel may send someone else to make the pilgrimage on their behalf.
Q 02Besides the Hajj, which is a Pillar of Islam?
Giving alms
Giving alms, or zakat, is a duty rather than a kindness: a levy on a Muslim's wealth for the poor and needy, which a few countries enforce by law.
Q 03In which month of the Islamic calendar does the Hajj take place?
Dhu'l-Hijja
Dhu'l-Hijja, 'the month of the pilgrimage', is one of four sacred months in which warfare was forbidden, a truce older than Islam that let feuding tribes travel to Mecca.
Q 04The Hajj falls about eleven days earlier each year because the Islamic calendar follows what?
The Moon
The Moon: twelve lunar months make a year of only 354 or 355 days, so the Hajj slips back through every season and returns to the same date about every 33 years.
Q 05As of 2026, which country holds the largest Hajj quota, with places for about 221,000 pilgrims?
Indonesia
Indonesia: quotas follow population, at roughly 1,000 pilgrims per million inhabitants, and demand so far outruns its 221,000 places that Indonesians can wait decades for a turn.
Q 06Which railway did the Ottomans build south from Damascus in the 1900s to carry pilgrims towards Mecca?
The Hejaz Railway
The Hejaz Railway never reached Mecca, stopping well short, and within a decade of opening Arab raiders urged on by Lawrence of Arabia were blowing up its track.
Q 07According to Islamic tradition, which prophet built the Kaaba with the help of his son?
Abraham
Abraham: a stone said to bear his footprints, the Station of Abraham, still stands beside the Kaaba, and pilgrims pray facing it.
Q 08Whose desperate search for water, running between two hills, is re-enacted by pilgrims?
Hajar, the mother of Ishmael
Hajar, the mother of Ishmael, ran until water broke from the ground beside her baby, the tradition says; that spring is the Zamzam Well, from which pilgrims still drink.
Q 09After taking Mecca, Muhammad cleared what out of the Kaaba?
Pagan idols
Pagan idols: tradition counts 360 of them around the shrine, and Muhammad is said to have struck them with a stick, declaring that truth had come and falsehood was finished.
Q 10What was the title of the official who commanded the great medieval pilgrim caravans to Mecca?
Amir al-hajj
The amir al-hajj rode with an armed escort, yet he also bought safety, paying the desert tribes along the route a tribute for safe passage.
Q 11What is the white-garbed state of consecration a pilgrim enters before the Hajj called?
Ihram
Ihram: men wrap themselves in two unstitched white sheets so that rich and poor look alike before God, and the plain cloth is also meant to recall a burial shroud.
Q 12Which of these is forbidden while a pilgrim is in the consecrated state?
Clipping nails
Clipping nails is banned for as long as the state lasts, along with perfume, hunting and quarrelling, so pilgrims trim theirs just before they enter it.
Q 13What is tawaf?
Walking seven times around the Kaaba
Q 21Jabal al-Rahmah, the Hajj's 'Mount of Mercy', is said to be the site of what?
Muhammad's Farewell Sermon
Muhammad's Farewell Sermon is said to have been given from the hill in the last months of his life, and a sermon is still preached on the plain each year to the pilgrims gathered there.
Q 22How do Hajj pilgrims spend their one night at Muzdalifah, on the way to the stoning ritual?
On the open ground
On the open ground: after sunset the whole crowd moves to Muzdalifah, prays and beds down under the stars, and gathers the pebbles it will throw the next day.
Q 23On the first day of the stoning ritual, pilgrims throw their pebbles at which of Mina's three pillars?
Walking seven times around the Kaaba, always counter-clockwise: the great wheel of people turning together is meant to show the believers as one before one God.
Q 14To show the Meccans they were not weak with fever, how did Muhammad's companions make three circuits of the Kaaba?
At a brisk trot
At a brisk trot, a gait called ramal: men still hurry the first three of their seven circuits in memory of that show of strength, then walk the remaining four.
Q 15When crowds keep pilgrims from kissing the Black Stone, what may they do on each circuit instead?
Point towards it
Point towards it, with the right hand: the kiss only follows Muhammad's example, and the caliph Umar told the stone he knew it could neither help nor harm him.
Q 16What do pilgrims do in the rite called sa'i?
Walk seven times between two hills
Walk seven times between two hills, Safa and Marwah: the course used to lie in the open air, but it is now roofed over and absorbed into the Great Mosque itself.
Q 17Two green markers on the walkway between Safa and Marwah show what?
A short section where pilgrims run
A short section where pilgrims run marks the old dip in the valley floor, crossed at a run, the tradition says, in the frantic search for water that the rite re-enacts.
Q 18The 9th day of the pilgrimage month, considered the day of Hajj itself, is known as what?
The Day of Arafah
The Day of Arafah: pilgrims stand in prayer on the plain of Arafat from noon to sunset, and it is the one rite that cannot be made up, so missing it means no Hajj at all.
Q 19Pilgrims nearing Mecca chant the talbiyah, which begins 'Labbayk Allahumma labbayk'; what does 'labbayk' mean?
I am at your service
'I am at your service', often rendered 'Here I am, O God, here I am': pilgrims take up the chant the moment they enter the consecrated state and repeat it for days.
Q 20Which Moroccan set out for the Hajj in 1325, aged 21, and stayed away from home for 24 years?
Ibn Battuta
Ibn Battuta meant only to make the pilgrimage, but the journey kept growing, as far as India and China, and the account he later dictated became one of the most famous travel books ever written.
Only the largest
Only the largest, Jamrat al-Aqabah, takes each pilgrim's seven pebbles that day; the crowding makes the stoning the most dangerous part of the Hajj, and crushes there killed hundreds in 2004 and 2006.
Q 24For safety, what replaced the three stoning pillars at Mina in 2004?
Long walls with catch basins
Long walls with catch basins went up after about 250 pilgrims died in a crush at the pillars that year: a wall is a far wider target than a column, and the spent pebbles drop into the basins.
Q 25How do many pilgrims now fulfil the animal sacrifice without being present at the slaughter?
By buying a voucher beforehand
By buying a voucher beforehand: the animal is slaughtered in the pilgrim's name at a modern abattoir, and the meat is sent to the needy at home and abroad.
Q 26Which global festival coincides with the sacrifice at Mina?
Eid al-Adha
Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice: Muslims everywhere slaughter an animal on the same days as the pilgrims and share the meat among family, friends and the poor.
Q 27How do male pilgrims begin leaving the consecrated state on the Hajj's day of sacrifice?
Shave or trim their hair
Shave or trim their hair: a full shave is the preferred choice, because Muhammad prayed again and again for those who shaved before adding those who only trimmed, while women snip a lock.
Q 28What is the last rite of the Hajj before a pilgrim leaves Mecca?
A farewell circling of the Kaaba
A farewell circling of the Kaaba, seven circuits long, is meant to be the very last thing a pilgrim does in the city; only menstruating women are excused from it.
Q 29Since King Fahd, Saudi kings have used which title in place of 'His Majesty'?
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques: the Arabic word is literally 'servant', and Saladin and the Ottoman sultans bore the title long before any Saudi king did.
Q 30What is the 'lesser pilgrimage' that can be made to Mecca at any time of year?
Umrah
Umrah keeps only the rites performed in and around the Great Mosque, so it can be finished in a few hours, and it never counts in place of the Hajj itself.